An ultrasound scanning system has been designed and built, specifically for assessment of peripheral blood vessels within 4 cm of the skin surface. The scanning system employs pulse echo techniques for visualization of blood vessels and soft tissue anatomy as well as pulsed Doppler techniques for assessment of blood flow patterns within vessels visualized. Signal processing and pattern recognition algorithms are performed on the Doppler signals obtained. The major thrust of this effort is aimed at detecting and quantifying arterial vascular disease at early and moderate stages with this noninvasive ultrasound approach. This will involve establishing a data bank of all the disease states as determined by the more traditional invasive procedures.